For many of us our minds tend to wander frequently throughout the day and jump from one thing to another. This makes it difficult to sustain our attention on our tasks every day. It also makes it challenging to meditate and fix our mind on only our breathing.
However, the good news is, the more we practice the easier it is. It also becomes easier to sustain our focus and be aware of what’s happening in the present moment throughout the day at work, school or home. The more you practice the more rewarding it gets. As in many great things in life, you get out of it what you put in.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.
Lao-Tzu
Learning to meditate is like lifting weights in the gym. You shouldn’t start for the first time by yourself, without someone teaching you or showing you what to do. You also don’t usually start out lifting 100 lbs. You may start with only 5 lbs. and you may only be able to do one repetition of lifting that weight, but if you do two reps the next day it means you’ve gotten stronger.
Think of meditating and returning your mind to your breath each time it wanders as doing another rep. Each time you catch yourself it means you are getting stronger or better at meditating. The more you catch your mind wandering and bring it back to your breath without judging yourself, the stronger you get. It’s not failure to discover you’ve just spent the last 2 minutes thinking about what you have to do at work tomorrow. It’s actually SUCCESS! Everyone can do it. It just takes consistent practice to get better at it.
The more you catch yourself thinking during meditation the more easily you will be able to catch yourself at other times having thoughts that cause stress, anxiety, anger, worry, sadness, fear etc., and are then able to stop them and return to the present moment.
*Our Mind is the Puppy because it tends to jump all over the place – not because it chews furniture
